MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – It’s the suspected culprit in fires that torched a Minneapolis church, a $1 million home in Hudson, Wis., and several other metro homes over the weekend — 30 million volts of electricity shooting through the sky.

Such a dramatic situation, it provoked dozens of viewers to email asking: Why don’t we see lightning rods on homes anymore?

“They’re hard to see,” said Doug Franklin, president of Thompson Lightning Protection in St. Paul.

Franklin said his company probably installs on about 100 homes in the Twin Cities every year, largely new construction. But the rods aren’t the 4-feet tall monsters of old.

On average, Minnesota has 40 thunderstorm days a year: 40 days when lightning could hit your home.
Compare that to California, which has about 5 thunderstorm days a year, and Florida, which has 100 days.

The Insurance Federation of Minnesota reports the number of claims paid for lightning damage to homes was up 15 percent from 2009 to 2010. Insurers in Minnesota paid on about 4,000 lighting claims in 2010, a total of $20.7 million.

“High objects, edges, ridges, corners, those are the places on buildings that get hit,” Franklin said.

The business of lightning protection is largely focused on big-dollar commercial building jobs. Every skyscraper in both downtowns has rods, and according to Franklin, they all get hit every year.